By Doug Draper
Some of the stories will “surprise” and some will even “shock” people, says Wayne Gates, who says he has been moved to tears by them.
CAW's Local 199 persident and Niagara Falls, Ontario councillor Wayne Gates
Gates, a Niagara Falls city councillor and president of Local 199 of the Canadian Auto Workers, has organized a public meeting and press conference for this coming Wednesday, August 10 at the 11:30 a.m. at the CAW Hall in St. Catharines, Ontario where members of families stricken by a C.Diff oubreak that has so far killed more than two dozen people in Niagara will tell their stories.
“I really think that the people who have been most affected by this have to have an opportunity to speak out,” said Gates. “They should have a chance to not only tell about the impact (C Diff.) has had the person infected, but the tool it takes on their family.”
The past July, Gates played a major role in organizing what was dubbed a “You Have a Right to Know” rally outside the Niagara Health System’s Greater Niagara General Hospital site in Niagara Falls where some of the C. Diff. deaths have occurred. Following that rally, he said he was contacted by a number of people who have experienced the super bug with family members infected in that hospital and other hospitals the NHS operates in Welland and St. Catharines.
“Some of the comments I heard (from these family members) is that the NHS is really marginalizing what is transpiring here,” he said. “These people want to tell there story.”
Gates said he will be contacting the NHS’s interim CEO Sue Matthews before this Wednesday’s meting to invite her and her fellow administrators to attend because he believes it is important for them to hear everything these victims have to say.
Those interested in attending this meeting will find the CAW Union Hall on 124 Bunting Road, running north from Queenston Street, in St. Catharines.
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Niagara At Large 
The last figures I heard were that over 80 have contracted C.difficile in NHS hospitals across Niagara and somewhere between 32 and 36 have died. That is nearly a 50% mortality rate. This is a serious deadly outbreak and warrants an investigation.
Is there a correlation between the serious cuts of the HIP (hospital improvement plan) by the NHS and the C.difficile outbreak?
We think so.
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Thank you Wayne for doing what the NHS should be doing but is afraid of what it will hear. Why? Because they already know and they have done nothing or less. Do these folks feel any guilt? Maybe , but it only lasts till payday. I cannot think of another organization tha has done so little for so few for many, many dollars. Their lying ways are not going to change now. They are paid too well to lie and there is no one to stop them.
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